Artist – Album: The White Stripes – Icky Thump
Released: 15th
June 2007
Sounds Like: They’ve gone mental!
Things kick off on Icky Thump, The White Stripes’ sixth and final
studio album, with the band not straying too far away from their standard
stuff. The Led Zeppelin influences are on full display on the title track,
whilst the bluesy garage rock of ‘300
M.P.H Torrential Outpour Blues’ has the vibe of their earlier work but with
a slightly more polished feel.
On the fourth song though, things
take a turn for the weird. Jack White wails “Connnn-quest!” like a psychotic
matador, whilst mariachi trumpeters and flamenco guitars provide a suitably
theatrical and exciting backdrop. It’s by far the most enthralling, interesting
and, well, insane song on this album,
and it’s only once you look at the album’s writing credits that you realise
that this centrepiece is not a White Stripes song at all, but a near like-for-like
copy of Patti Page’s 1950s dramatic pop. You barely have time to get your
breath back during the pleasant but hardly ground breaking ‘Bone Broke’ and ‘Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn’ before you’re thrown back into the
crazy with ‘St. Andrew (This Battle Is in
the Wind’ ), a psychedelic rocker
complete with bagpipes and spoken word verses. Following that is the abrasive
and harsh ‘Little Cream Soda’.
Whilst these flights of fancy can
be fascinating and original, they’re mostly just baffling. There’s also the inkling
that they’re only doing this for the sake of being weird – check out the pearly
king and queen outfits on the album cover for exhibit 1, totally unnecessary. Not
only do the bizarre bits swing and miss, but when the band decide to go back to
basics and rock out they can still occasionally disappoint. Unfortunately, for
the first time they sound like they’re no longer making classic rock but just imitating
Classic Rock. It’s a decent album, but nowhere near as vital as their earlier
output.
Albumaday... rating:
6/10
1. Icky
Thump – 4:17
2. You
Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You’re Told) – 3:54
3. 300
M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues – 5:28
4. Conquest
– 2:48
5. Bone
Broke – 3:14
6. Prickly
Thorn, But Sweetly Worn – 3:05
7. St.
Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air) – 1:49
8. Little
Cream Soda – 3:45
9. Rag
and Bone – 3:48
10. I’m
Slowly Turning Into You – 4:34
11. A
Martyr for My Love for You – 4:19
12. Catch
Hell Blues – 4:18
13. Effect
and Cause – 3:00
Listen to ‘Prickly
Thorn, But Sweetly Worn’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X69EVJCOKWM
Also released on the 15th June:
1989: Nirvana - Bleach
|
Also released on the 15th June:
1999: The White Stripes – The White Stripes
|
Also released on the 15th June:
1999: Santana - Supernatural
|
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